Primrose Hill is a hill located on the north side of Regent's Park in north London, and also the name for the surrounding district. The hill has a clear view of Central London to the south-east, as well as Belsize Park and Hampstead to the north-west. Like Regent's Park the area was once part of a great chase appropriated by Henry VIII and became Crown property in 1841. In 1842 an Act of Parliament secured the land as public open space. One of London's best viewpoints, Primrose Hill stands like a full stop to the north of Regent's Park and London Zoo. It was first cleared for meadowland during the reign of Elizabeth I.

One early 1966 morning after a full night's session recording for the album "Between the Buttons", the Rolling Stones took to Primrose Hill to breathe some clear air. Rolling Stones photographer Gered Mankowitz snapped the album's famous cover image at the visit.

Gered Mankowitz himself on the photograph:
"During the Between The Buttons sessions (Brian) continuously tried to screw the pictures up: he was hiding behind his collar; he'd bought himself a newspaper and buried himself in it; he was just not cooperating. I wouldn't say Brian was trying to ruin the session, but he was so often being difficult. The whole point of the Between The Buttons pictures is that we were consciously trying to get an image of a band that had a vagueness to it, where you didn't have to be presented with everything in detail. And I was experimenting by putting Vaseline on the lens and using strange, distorted colors. We piled (the Stones) into Andrew (Oldham)'s Rolls and headed for Primrose Hill in North London. When we reached the top of the hill, there was this well-known London character called Maxie - a sort of prototype hippy - just standing on his own playing the flute. Mick walked up to him and offered him a joint and his only response was Ah - breakfast!"

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